The Girl with No Name Ch. 23

Danka glanced at Isauria, who stared at the commanders with a transfixed expression. She was amused, more than anything else, that Isauria's first real introduction to sex would be watching her commanders, a woman in her mid-30s and a man in his mid-50's, having a tryst in the woods. She had no intention of pulling Isauria away or trying to "protect her innocence". The girl needed to grow up quickly, so there was no point in keeping any of life's secrets from her.

She's bound to learn about it anyway, so it's better that it's sooner than later...

Anyhow, Danka was no moral purist. She had known about the "facts of life" from a very early age, because it was hard for parents living in a single-room hovel to hide anything from their children. The elder Síluckts didn't even bother to try. Besides her parents, Danka had witnessed various neighbors having liaisons during her wanderings around the laborers' settlement as she was growing up. There was no curiosity about sex from Danka... no mystery that she wanted to resolve. The encounters disgusted her more than anything else, which was part of the reason her virginity was still intact when her hair was braided.

As soon as the commanders finished, Danka and her apprentice slipped away. The girl's face was full of bewildered questions. Danka commented:

"It's the same with your father's sheep, wouldn't you agree Apprentice?"

"Yes, Defender Síluckt."

"There are other positions. A lot of them. Try to avoid using that one... the position you just saw. It's the 'submissive' position, when you're admitting the man is superior to you. Whether or not that is true, it's best not to admit it."

"I...I don't understand, Defender..."

"I don't really know how to explain it... but life is all about fighting for control. Do you control, or does the other person control you? If you use the submissive position for sex, you're giving up control over your body. I suppose that's acceptable if you give yourself to a man who truly loves you. But thinking a man truly loves you, and that love being real... well... the Realm of the Living and the Realm of Fantasy are two very different places."

Danka could see that Isauria was more confused than ever.

"Listen. Just try to avoid using the submissive position. Try to avoid getting pregnant. Put off having sex as long as you can. And never... ever... try to 'reward' a man by letting him use your body. That's what you need to know for now. And there's one more thing. I know how to prevent the moon from paying you a visit. At your age... you don't want the moon to visit you."

Danka decided that the time had come to educate Isauria about birth control. She spent the rest of the afternoon teaching her how to prepare and use the paste, and also how babies were formed in the womb. Isauria came from a different culture than Danka, a culture in which sex was a dark and sinful secret, and people were amazingly ignorant about the topic. By learning about sex and birth control well before being ready to marry, Isauria was making an important break with her family's values and the culture in which she had been raised.

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Danka thought about her own options as she looked around at the men in the camp. She was desperate for sex, but unable to make up her mind what kind of lover she wanted. She liked the attractiveness and vigor of younger men, but they quickly bored her because she did not find young men intellectually challenging. She preferred the intellect and experience of older men, but older men had their own faults, vices, and problems. To avoid having to settle on a permanent partner, she was tempted to have sex with any man who was interested in her, like she had done at the university in Sebérnekt Ris. However, by the end of 1756 she had matured enough to realize the militia was not the university, and the community of the Defenders was very different from the one created by the Followers. Being promiscuous would compromise her honor, threaten her reputation in the Defenders' community, and possibly cause conflict among the men. She did not want to risk her standing among her peers. She was respected and well-liked throughout the encampment, even more so than when she had been with the Followers of the Ancients.

Perhaps it was pure hubris, but she enjoyed being respected and well-liked.

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Note: Throughout the 1750s, the central and eastern portion of the border between the Grand Duchy of Upper Danubia and the Kingdom of the Moon suffered from continuous combat. However, the fighting differed significantly from the Grand Duke's campaign to the west in Hórkustk Ris. Instead of a large army defending the Duchy against another large army, the fighting to the east involved much smaller units skirmishing over much smaller objectives. The conflict was not over the fate of the Duchy, but over small sections of the border and the foreigners' desire to access natural resources located in Danubian territory. Instead of regular troops, semi-independent militias loosely united under the title "Defenders of the Duchy" launched quick small-scale raids against intruders. Almost all militia operations followed a general pattern: the area commander identified a group of combatants from the Kingdom of the Moon that were either in the Duchy or likely to cross the border, goad them to enter an area that favored Danubian fighting techniques, then launch an ambush. If the enemy was forced to withdraw upon the first ambush, there would be a follow-up ambush to inflict as many casualties as possible. If the ambush was inconclusive or likely to result in a defeat, the Danubians withdrew to launch a new effort to goad the enemy into another ambush in a more favorable location.

Usually the objective was not to protect territory, but to inflict as many casualties as possible to sap the enemy's desire to cross into the Duchy and threaten Danubians. The militia leaders carefully selected targets to ensure either victory or minimal losses. They also wanted to send a clear message to both Lords' warring factions through their selection of places where fighting took place. The Danubians focused exclusively on military targets they considered were directly threatening the Duchy. The Defenders did frequently conduct raids across the border, but the objectives were always units that were about to cross into the Duchy, or men who had returned from the Duchy to be re-supplied. Unlike the Kingdom of the Moon factions, the Danubians left the civilian population alone.

The strategy had a long-term focus: to demoralize the Kingdom of the Moon's fighting men. The men became well-aware that the Danubians were not a threat if citizens of the Kingdom of the Moon stayed on their side of the border. As soon as the foreigners crossed or prepared to cross, they could expect to be attacked. Over time the enemy soldiers would view what they were doing in the Duchy as unnecessary and futile, although in 1756 the morale of the invaders had not yet deteriorated to the point the men would dare challenge their commanders. The first large mutiny among the Lord of the Blue Moon's men would not happen until 1758.

- Maritza Ortskt-Dukovna -